Israeli Illegals Finding New Lives In South Florida

After six years serving the Israeli army as a paratrooper, Yoram needed a vacation. With a tourist visa in hand, he traveled around the United States.

When Yoram came to South Florida to visit a friend, he liked it so much that he stayed -- illegally.

Yoram is one of hundreds, if not thousands, of illegal Israeli immigrants working and living in South Florida.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service says hundreds of Israeli illegals are deported from America yearly, and many more choose to leave when they are caught.

South Florida is one area these illegals flock to -- and the problem is growing, an INS official said. While no figures are available on their numbers, the problem is serious enough to warrant INS` attention, the official said.

Immigration lawyer Lisa Enfield speculated that the number of Israeli illegals may be so high that they outnumber the legal Israelis in South Florida.

An estimated 25,000 Israelis live in South Florida. But that number may be low because it does not count the illegals, said Ira Sheskin, professor of geography at the University of Miami.

Yoram, who refused to give his last name, works illegally at a booth he rents at the Swap Shop near Fort Lauderdale. He came on a tourist visa three years ago.

When it expired, he got a student visa because he was taking adult education classes at Piper High School. But after he got the visa, he dropped the classes, rendering the visa invalid.

``I was studying English ... then I quit,`` he said. ``I couldn`t make it with the job. I came home very tired and then I couldn`t concentrate on anything.``

Unlike illegal aliens from this hemisphere, Israelis cannot sneak across the border into the United States. They come to America legally on tourist or student visas.

``Most Israelis, when they come to the United States, are legal, but it is not legal to work,`` said Moshe Yamin, a writer for the Hebrew-language newspaper Yisrael Shelanu.

They find jobs anyway, and when their tourist and student visas expire, they stay. Yoram, for instance, remains because life is easier than in Israel.

``Israel is very bad economically,`` he said. ``It`s not like here. If you work hard here, you`ve got opportunities.``

Others are driven to leave Israel by social pressures such as the Palestinian uprising and yearly army reserve duty, Yamin said.

Once here, they get jobs underground.

``Most of the (illegal) Israelis that I`ve seen, they work in small entrepreneurial businesses,`` said Joel Stewart, former president of the South Florida chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers` Association.

According to INS, some Israelis get legitimate jobs without their employers knowing they are illegal aliens.

Like any tourists visiting the United States, they can get a driver`s license if they prove they entered the country legally.

They then get fake Social Security cards and work permits from the black market. They use the documents to prove to employers that they are allowed to work, Enfield said.

Many Israeli illegals work for cash and do not pay taxes on it.

Eli, 26, was a hair stylist in Tel Aviv before he came to the United States a year ago. Like Yoram, Eli declined to speak unless his last name was not used.

``It was time for a vacation, like a half a year,`` he said.

He visited Hawaii, Los Angeles and ended up renting a house in Florida. He has been working at a booth at the Swap Shop for five months on his tourist visa. He said he plans to stay in Florida for at least two more years.

Eli is typical of many Israeli illegals in Florida: They want to see America, said Danny Tadmore, the host of Galey Yisrael, an English and Hebrew program on WVCG Radio 1080.

``They come to tour the world ... and then they wind up here and begin to work, and maybe earn some money to continue their tour,`` Tadmore said.

Many of these Israelis say they do not want to stay here and work illegally indefinitely. So some return home.

Some of them marry Americans.

And some apply for green cards and get legal work permits while they wait.

When his student visa runs out next year, Yoram will apply for another, he said. If his application is rejected, he will either go back to Israel or marry his American girlfriend. In the meantime, he is not worrying.